beware! it were better for her to lose Malta, Corfu, and
Gibraltar, than the glorious position which her struggle against slavery
and the slave trade has secured her in the esteem of nations. Even in
our age of armed frigates and rifled cannon, the chief of all powers,
thank God! is moral power. Woe to the nation that disregards it, and
consents to immolate its principles to its interests! From the beginning
of the present conflict, the enemies of England, and they are numerous,
have predicted that the cause of cotton will weigh heavier in her scales
than the cause of justice and liberty. They are preparing to judge her
by her conduct in the American crisis. Once more, let her beware!

And under what pretexts do we chaffer with the government of Mr. Lincoln
for those energetic, persevering sympathies on which it has a right to
count? Let us examine.

We hear, in the first place, of the vigor of the South and the weakness
of the North. It is not the first time that a bad cause has shown itself
more ardent, more daring, less preoccupied by consequences, than a good
one. Good causes have scruples, and every scruple is an obstacle.

I am assuredly as sorry as any one to see Mr. Lincoln struck with a sort
of paralysis. To my mind, the dangers of inactivity are considerable; I
believe that it discourages friends and encourages adversaries; I
believe that it sanctions more or less the baleful and erroneous
principle of secession, a principle more contagious than any other; I
believe, in fine, that, by postponing civil war, it probably risks
increasing its gravity. Nevertheless, shall we not take into account the
exceptional difficulties with which Mr. Lincoln is surrounded?

The preceding Administration took care to leave no resource in his
hands: he found the forts either surrendered or indefensible, the
arsenals invaded, the army scattered, the navy despatched to distant
parts of the seas. Is it strange that he should have yielded in some
degree to the entreaties of so many able men, all urging in the same
direction? If to-morrow he should yield entirely, if he should recognize
the Southern Confederacy, would it be great cause for astonishment?

Let us not forget, moreover, that the border States are at hand, forming
a rampart, as it were, to protect the extreme South. Several of these
States, I am convinced, incline sincerely towards the North, and will
remain united with it; but are there not others, Virginia, for inst